Happy 40th!

Dan's 40th birthday was on June 9, and since he did not want any kind of party to celebrate, and truthfully didn't want to turn 40 at all, I decided to surprise him with a trip to Chicago over a long weekend to visit his good friend, Kevin. Kevin and Amy moved to Chicago 6 months ago from Tallahassee for work reasons, and we were the first from Florida to visit them. Kevin and I conspired in organizing the trip secretly, which was revealed to Dan when we were 15 minutes from the Jacksonville airport (he knew we were going somewhere just not on a plane or for more than one day so I actually pulled off the surprise!).

Our trip was full of visiting with our friends, siteseeing and eating. Dan's birthday dinner celebration was started at Lou Malnati's, which is famous for its deep dish pizza, and ended at Public House, a bar which has beer taps at each table (needless to say, the boys definitely overindulged but hey, you only turn 40 once). Friday was more siteseeing, strolling down Michigan Avenue, shopping, and just getting a feel for the city, during which we walked all the way to the lake. The highs were in the 50s which was low for June in Chicago. It was a little too cold to do much outside but being in cooler weather made it feel like a true vacation so we didn't mind. It also made it okay to stop for coffee every chance we got, which we did at Intelligentsia Coffee and Tea. Intelligentsia is a very unique coffee house that does not brew their coffee in the typical method, but instead, hot water is poured through a coffee filter into a beaker as you watch. The result: a velvety, chocolate sort of flavor from their house coffee bean is born. Right after we grabbed a cup Friday, we jumped on the train to see the White Sox play the A's at New Comiskey Park at 7pm, another birthday present to Dan, this time from my parents. Even though the White Sox lost in the 9th inning, experiencing the ball park was a first for all four of us, and it even ended in a big fireworks show which was a fun perk.

We also got to experience Freddy's in Cicero, IL (right outside the city) which is a deli with any and every Italian food you can imagine from chicken piccata, lamb meatballs, caprese salad to, what I declared, the best gelato ever! I had the cheesecake and raspberry swirl gelato while Dan had biscuit and chocolate gelato which were all too delicious to finish (well, practically, I did finish mine then helped Dan with his since he ordered a half pint!). Saturday, it was more general siteseeing and an architectural boat tour on the river. The boat tour was an hour and a half, again, a little chilly, but we kept warm with the boat's provided Starbuck's coffee and fresh baked cookies. The tour educated us about all the downtown buildings and their history from the infamous 1871 Chicago fire to the buildings' transformation from commercial to residential in the mid to late 1900s. After the boat tour, it was off for more Italian at Quartino, a family style, tapas restaurant that is famous for its loud atmosphere and lively wine bar. It was then early to bed for us since we had to catch a 5:15am plane home (flights to the panhandle never allow many options so it was either this or get to Jacksonville at 11:30pm), but we managed to celebrate Dan's birthday for a good three days straight and show him turning 40 isn't as bad as he thought it would be!



(Chicago and friends)